Transcription

1 The soya route in North West Argentina Oscar Delgado Centro de Acción Popular Olga Márquez de Arédez (CAPOMA)

2 The soya route in North West Argentina The provinces of Salta, Jujuy Tucuman and Catamarca are the most northerly regions of Argentina, bordering with Chile to the west, Bolivia to the north, and a short segment of Paraguay to the north-east. The Salta Province has an approximate area of hectares and until 2002, maintained just under half of its natural vegetation cover ( hectares of forest) I. The greatest expanse of forest (around hectares) corresponds to the habitat type known as bosque Chaqueño (Chaco forest). It forms part of the world s most extensive area of dry subtropical forest, with over hectares distributed between Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. After the Amazon jungle, it forms the second largest forest mass. The remaining hectares of Salta forest territory are made up of the Selva de Yungas, a mountainous sub-tropical forest located between the sub-andean mountains and the areas below the Andean cordillera chain which extend a little over 700 kilometres from North to South within the Provinces of Jujuy, Salta and Tucuman. The Yungas is an ecologically-diverse region where the forest vegetation connects the plains of the Chaco with the mountain valleys, creating the right conditions of humidity for the transitional forests which exist between the dry forests and the mountainous jungles of the interior. Within the forest belt created by the Yungas are the foothill forests. Because of their position at the entrance to the Chaco, these are characterised by a high level of diversity. The north-west region of Argentina has one of the greatest levels of biodiversity in the country. In the Yungas ecoregion there are 203 species of birds, such as the Hawk Eagle (Spizaetus ornatus), the Red-faced Guan (Penelope Dabbenei) and the Military Macaw (Ara militaris). There are also 89 mammal species, such as the Jaguar (Pantera onca), the Tapir (Tapirus terrestris), and the Ocelot (Leopardus pardilis) II. Due to the flat and gently undulating relief, mild climate and fertile soils, the forests of the foothills have been a favourite area for the expansion of agriculture, and in particular, mechanised agriculture, which has been increasing since the end of the 1960s - with a particularly sharp rise since the 1990s to the present time. This area is also a dense populated region, with numerous indigenous and rural communities setteled specially in the north close to Bolivia. These communities maintain their forest knowledge and skills, as well as cultivation techniques for the abundance of native food species found in the area. 133

3 United Soya Republics Salta is one of the areas of Argentina where soya is expanding at highest rate. The cultivated land area during the 2006/2007 crop cycle was hectares III. Within the province hectares of forest have disappeared in the past four years. The deforestation that took place in the period of increased % - with 194,389 hectares were cleared IV,V. Salta and Santiago del Estero are the main provinces of the north that are being deforested on a massive scale to make way for soya. The area in question encompasses the transition to the Chaco and the subhumid Chaco area where deforestation projects expand in focus points where thousands of hectares are cleared at a time, flattening forests and indigenous and rural settlements in their paths. The bitter history of the region Current demographic and socio-economic organisation is rooted in the time of the Spanish conquest of the 16 th century. The leading family clans, and those creole descendants who managed to acquire independence, created the country s structure and integrated this to the global capitalist system at the end of the 19 th and beginning of the 20 th centuries. This was why the indigenous populations were violently wiped out, and their labour and produce were demanded according to the wishes of the dominant families. The major part of the pre-colombian social system was broken down, although some elements survived in areas where longstanding traditions are maintained, and within indigenous races mixed with creoles who have maintained local traditions to the present day. One of the cruellest examples of the concentration of land, which also shows the level of of coercive domination over human activity of the time, is that of the sugar mills. These include the mills at San Martin de Tabacal in Salta, and the Ledesma SAAI mill in Jujuy, which owns hectares (an area 14 times the size of the Province of Buenos Aires) in the Province of Jujuy. Ledesma is the largest industrial sugar-refining complex in Latin America. It also produces paper (dominating 40% of the national market), and alcohol (ethanol from sugar cane). It has approximately hectares of crops within the region of Jujuy and has a wealth of 500 million dollars VI. The Ledesma mill was the property of the Leach family (of English origin) from the end of the 1800s. Ownership was transferred to the Blaquier family in the 1950s, and they continue to be one of the most powerful 134

4 The soya route in North West Argentina and influential families in Argentina. The Costas family were the original owners of the sugar mill at San Martin de Tabacal. They sold the property to the Seaboard Corporation from the USA in the 1990s. The coup of 1976 and its consequences With the coup d etat on the 24 th March 1976, the bloodiest military dictatorship that Argentina has ever witnessed came to power. Powerful groups of businessmen supported the military and provided them with lists of names for the purpose of annihilating social activists from guilds, universities, journalists, etc. who wanted a fairer distribution of wealth or demanded justice and a democratic society. One of the most transparent cases of complicity and of direct collaboration with the deadly repression of the Armed Forces is that of the Blaquier family - the owners of Ledesma SAAI. On the 20 th July 1976 there began a series of tragic events, which were supported and driven by the interests of Ledesma SAAI. During the night there was a power cut which plunged the town of Libertador Gral San Martin and surrounding villages, such as Caliligua and El Talar, into darkness. Taking advantage of the darkness, squads from the military, gendarmerie, the police and foremen from the Ledesma sugar mill burst into the homes of workers, guild members, students and teachers. They ransacked their homes and arrested over 400 people, tied them up, and blindfolded and bundled them into trucks owned by Ledesma SAAI. This same chain of events was repeated a number of times during the end of July 1976, with programmed power cuts that terrorised the population 1. During this time, Dr Luis Aredez, an ex-mayor and the doctor of the Ledesma Union, was jailed for a year. On his return to the region he was kidnapped and was not seen again 2. Miguel Ragone was Saltas Governor during this time. He was close to the people and was aware of their problems. He was deposed before the military coup took place on the 24 th March 1976, having been unofficially accused by the reactionary forces of supporting guerrilla groups, and because of bad institutional management. Eventually, on the 11 th March 1 These events have come to be known as la noche del apagon the night when the lights went out. 2 Olga Márquez de Arédez, the Doctor s widow, led the campaign by the families of the disappeared detainees. She joined the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo and set up every yeardemonstrations in the memory of la noche del apagon in Ledesma. C.A.P.O.M.A. was founded in her memory. It is a group dedicated to the defence of human and enviromental rights, and of which the author of this chapter is a member. 135

5 United Soya Republics 1976, he was kidnapped and injured by Police agents, it is suspected that they were aided by the Federal Police and the Argentine Military. He remains disappeared to this day. The de-facto military government of annulled the documents legitimising ancestral property rights to indigenous lands in the Department of San Martin. The military kidnapped, tortured and murdered militants, and representatives and leaders of grass-roots social organisations. They gave power to the large landowners and to the new powerful investors involved in land appropriations. According to an account given by an indigenous Wichi from Embarcacion, Department of San Martin: During the time of the military, the papers and the land which Governor Ragone had ready to hand over to us were annulled. The Gendarmerie settled in Embarcacion and took a number of rural people as prisoners. They tortured them badly. The military would come in helicopters shooting at us. Because of this we lost all sense of security on our land. Another Wichi from General. Mosconi recounts: In 1978 the businessmen from Leon y Chiban S.A. came. They told us they had ownership documents, and came to throw us off the hectares that we have always inhabited. Our cemetery for the old ones (ancestors) is here. We did not allow them to throw us out. They destroyed our wooden houses with bulldozers, and during the night we put them back up again. We would not answer them in Castillian when they came with the Judge and the Police, and we would not sign anything. We are still fighting because they will not recognise us as owners of this land. But our history and culture is on this land, and that is the truth. Currently, political power in Salta has a distinctive character inherited from the time of the dictatorship. The current pronvincial government took power in 1995 and is still in power today. The current Governor is Juan Carlos Romero. The Romero family has closed ranks with the military usurpers, and its newspaper El Tribuno (on which Romero was sub-editor during the dictatorship) has become the official voice of the repression and persecution unleashed by the Armed Forced on the popular movements without any hint of conscience. During the dictatorship, the Romero family increased their wealth. With the arrival of democracy, they have acquired regional political power, through their richness and through powerful business and their allies in the circles of big landowners. The collaboration and support given to the exterminating function of the Armed Forces can be traced directly to some of the agricultural businessmen who are currently promoting the soya model. One of the 136

6 The soya route in North West Argentina most evident cases is that of the Olmedo family clan. They originate from the southern Salta region and are closely linked to the Romero clan. They are currently the owners of two soya businesses: Olmedo Agropecuario S.A. and Ecodesarrollo S.A. In 1976, at one of their country estates, a military group kidnapped and disappeared a worker. This case is officially registered with the Human Rights Network of Salta; surviving witnesses of these events are still afraid of reprisals. Those detained were held under inhuman conditions with others who had been victims of secret kidnappings. They were kept in an agricultural warehouse belonging to the Olmedo family and used by the military for their persecution. The local inhabitants even talk of the disappearance of workers under the military dictatorship as if it were a legend. They link the disappearances to the Olmeda and Salinas families and a pact with the devil, as a way of justifying these disappearances. At the end of the 1970s the State was dominated by the military and they had a favourable attitude towards big business. The public lands of the northern and eastern Salta, the plains below the foothills, and the approaches to the Chaco were all witnessing the appearance of new landowners, thanks to land agreements awarded to high-ranking members of the local military and from Buenos Aires. Beneficiaries like Alfredo Martinez de Hoz transferred thousands of hectares of land to Franco Macri in the 1990s. Macri is a businessman who accumulated his wealth during the dictatorship of He set up a company with one of Emilio Massera s sons and called it Desde el Sur (From the South). The company is undertaking massive forest clearances and evicting indigenous people from their ancestral homelands. There is also the case of Salvador Muñoz, a local producer from the town of Embarcacion, Department of San Martin. He was Mayor during the dictatorship, the Muñoz family transformed themselves into large-scale fruit and vegetable producers during the 1980s and 1990s on the ancestral homelands of the Wichi. They are also major suppliers for the supermarkets of Buenos Aires. Having amassed a great deal of financial power, during the second half of the 1990s, they turned their attention to GM soya monoculures and are responsible for large-scale deforestation. The soya route Route 34 is a national route in Salta that crosses the wide valleys between the mountain blocks. It runs from the south to the north of the Andean foothills on its way to the Chaco and links with Route 5, 137

7 United Soya Republics which connects the southern Salta with the borders of the Chaco. The lines of communication link up the urban areas that sprang up with the arrival of the railway and the commencement of timber extraction at the beginning of the 20 th century. The first pioneer farmers who grazed their cattle in the forests established themselves in the area since The production and population structure of the province began to take shape with medium-sized farms producing fruit and vegetables. Mechanisation with intensively farmed monocultures began with leguminous crops, such as different varieties of beans, in the 1960s, and grew dramatically in the 1990s with the introduction of soya. Since 1996, the areas connecting the Chaco Plain, the Andean foothills and all their intersected valleys have been dramatically transformed by GM soya cultivation. Production of soya has expanded towards the plains of the Chaco and destroyed both forests and centuries-old settlements in its path, and has displaced or put an end to other ways of life in the area associated with forests, such as livestock farming. After the last agricultural cycle of 2006/2007, soya extended into another hectares within the transition area to Chaco VII. Map of the Salta Province showing Route 34 and the three areas of soya expansion. 138

8 The soya route in North West Argentina During this brief period of time, the urban centres connected by the road routes became occupied territories and providers of agricultural services in the wake of the ferocious advances of GM soya which were destroying natural environments and regional economies. Even though these regions were under-exploited, and suffered from economic highs and lows, they provided a diversity of foods and sources of employment brought changes to the expansion of the soya industry throughout the whole of northern Argentina, including the region of Santiago del Estero.In this region soya expansion has been exponential. During the 1993/1994 cycle the area covered was hectares. This later diminished to hectares during the 1995/1996 cycle, and increased again to hectares during the cycle of 1998/1999 VIII. From that time onwards, crop areas have increased to reach hectares in 2003/2004 IX, and finally hectares in 2006/2007 X. Soya s nuclei of expansion within the Salta Province Currently, three urban areas within the Salta region can be identified as places from which the advances of agricultural frontiers are being planned. Rosario de la Frontera, in the south; Las Lajitas, to the east and the entrance to the Chaco; and Tartagal, to the north. In northern Salta, agricultural plots are large in size and arranged on a north-south axis on the eastern side of Route 34. The plots in south-east Salta are densely concentrated. Agricultural exploitation has advanced through Rosario de la Frontera using the same methods as the mining industry intensive extraction of all resources. This area was the first place to practice large-scale mechanised agriculture in the 1960s. It began in Rosario de la Frontera and Metan, among families who were descendants of the leaders and immigrants who emigrated from Spain in The exploitation began as mechanised monocultures of bean crops (these had a value on the international market) and destroyed large tracts of forest. Some areas remained covered with forest and pasture where traditional forest grazing continued. The land use imposed was similar to that of the pampas of Santa Fe and Buenos Aires (where the climate is warm and soil and humidity levels are different to those in the Salta). Over time, yields were reduced, the soils became poor and the process of erosion quickly took over. 139

9 United Soya Republics As a consequence, in the 1970s the bean farmers of Rosario de la Frontera and Metan searched for other other locations and made their way towards the Salta in the north of the country. At this point, that area still had an abundance of public land, inhabited by creole farmers and indigenous communities practising extensive ranching in the forest, that had never obtain legitimacy over their ancestral lands. The first deforestations took place aiming to create the new agricultural lands of the eastern foothills of the sierras of Maiz Gordo and the Cresta del Gallo, both located in the centre of Salta. The profitability of the bean and the conventional soya began to attract speculators from Buenos Aires, Santa Fe and even from abroad. Las Lejitas is located towards the centre of the Province, and Tartagal, the provincial capital of the Department of San Martin in the north, has a climate that borders on tropical. These are the centres for agricultural services and focal points for the expansion and have been growing exponentially since the 1990s. The Department of San Martin is composed of wide, humid plains at the base of the jungle highlands to the north of the River Bermejo. This was an area of pristine forest scattered with gaucho family farms practicing extensive ranching and transhumance. Also found within this area were medium-sized plantations (this was the first region in the country to grow peppers, tomatoes, etc, for national consumption from July to September) and was able to provide significant levels of employment. From the 1970s new entrepreneurs began to arrive in the region bringing with them large corporate identities. They bought or were given land by the Provincial government through suspicious deals. The traditional size of farms saw a tenfold increase from a little over 100 hectares to 1000 hectares. This was due to deforestation carried out by the new landowners. As early as 1989 more than 70% of the cultivated land surface in the region belonged to companies and people from outside the region. In the 1990s, the use of mechanised agriculture grew exponentially, with soya as the key crop. The environmental management of forests, cultural history and any surviving traditional produce was trampled underfoot as massive-scale deforestation cleared the land for monoculture using the tactics of physical and legalised violence following the interest of the political and economical bussines circle of soya. During the second half of the 1990s, Las Lajitas, Metan and Tartagal witnessed the building of offices, warehouses and agricultural silos by corporations who were responsible for the sharp rise of soya cultivation. 140

10 The soya route in North West Argentina Among these were Monsanto, Bunge 3 and Dreyfus. They are allied to the large producers and promote the benefits of agricultural biotechnology through intensive campaigns of events and workshops saw the commencement of large-scale violent evictions of indigenous and creole communities that inhabit the communal forests, and of the small agricultural areas made up of plots of smallholdings growing food for local and national markets. These stood in the way of the new largescale monocultures that were being established throughout the area. Deforestation continued at an alarming rate with teams of bulldozers shaving clean all vegetation throughout hundreds of thousands of hectares, only to plant vast seas of uniform soya. In the Department of San Martin mechanised deforestation accelerated in the 1990s. It has almost completely destroyed the continuous forest which spread from the Chaco plains in the east towards the transitional jungle foothills in the west. Franco Macri is the owner of the El Yuto ranch in Embarcacion. The estate was acquired by Macri in 1997 when he won the concession from the Argentine postal service paying less than 100 dollars per hectare for the land. Between 1997 and 2002, the government of Salta gave Macri six forest clearance permits, which have already been used to clear an area of hectares. Macri has also acquired the concession to use the public water supply, to set up an irrigation supply from underground waters, and to extract water from the Bermejo River. Macri is also attempting to acquire Belgrano Cargas, the railway company that plans to reactivate soya transportation to the port of Rosafe XI. The Departments of Anta, San Martin and Oran are the areas most affected by the onslaught of deforestation. Between 2002 and 2004 the deforested area was hectares in Anta, hectares in Oran, and hectares in San Martin. Data from the Department of Forestry reveals that between 1984 and 2001, hectares of the Yungas in the Salta region had been deforested (that is 10,84% of the total area) as well as hectares of the Chaco within the Salta region. Deforestation to make way for agriculture within the forest regions of the Chaco reached hectares between 1984 and 2004 in the Departments of San Martín, Oran and Anta XII. 3 Bunge has a national capacity for grain processing of 25,000 tonnes per day. This was the first soya processor in the country, as well as the first to export seeds, of which 95% are destined for Spain and Holland. Bunge installed a biodiesel plant in Rosario-Santa Fe and at other sites in Salta at Delfin, Gallo, Tucuman, Piquete Cabado, Las Lajitas, Coronel Mollinedo, and Macapillo. The total capacity of these is 250,000 tonnes. 141

11 United Soya Republics Because of the above, in the north-east of the Salta province 51% of area planted with soya crops ( hectares) in 2002/03 corresponded to what would still have been natural areas in 1988/89 XIII.Throughout this area, 89% of soya s advance on the natural vegetation has taken place in the dry Chaco (such as the forests of Quebracho, Kaki, Peach and other tree species), 5% in the Yungas jungles, and 5,7% in the mountain Chaco XIV. Government policies Current government policies on deforestation within the Salta region have a powerful ally within the Secretaria de Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo de Salta (SEMADES, the Department for the Environment and Sustainable Development in Salta). This government body issued deforestation permits to agricultural companies. It also set up the public hearings before permits were issued, where theoretically, the community is consulted about plans and projects for changes to the natural environment. However, irregularities are a constant issue and the process is flouted regularly, as is national and provincial environmental legislation; serious environmental impact studies are ignored; and deforestation projects are begun without consultation. Trees are ripped out by their roots and hundreds of them are piled up into piles hundreds of metres across and set on fire. In some cases, consultations also take place in far away districts, so that those affected by the deforestation will not be able to express their concerns. In a race to pre-empt proposed legislation for Minimum Budgets for Natural Forests which was being proposed by the National Senate, SEMADES authorised the deforestation of hectares of forest from December 2006 to June This legislation would put a stop to deforestation for years by decreeing land use. Government representatives from Salta are seriously opposed to the legislation. The size of the land area in question is the same as the whole area of the City of Buenos Aires and represents 70% of the average national area deforested each year. During the period in question, 26 requests for forest clearance were approved. These included individual clearances of a minimum of 600 hectares and a maximum of hectares XV. Among the approvals granted was one for ARCOR, a company recently arrived from the Santa Fe area, which deforested an area of hectares; Quebracho Colorado S.A., a company belonging to Sergio Usandivaras deforested hectares; Rumbo Norte S.A. from Santa Fe deforested hectares, resulting in serious conflicts with rural communities which had been settled in the area for centuries. In April 2007 members of these communities were arrested by Police. In June 2007, there were violent confrontations between communities and groups of thugs employed by the landowners. 142

12 The soya route in North West Argentina The events described above are the reasons for the rapid advance of Genetically Modified-GM crops over unique forest habitats, without any concern for the environment or human life. It is worth noting that Amnesty International s World Report for 2007 identifies the Governor of Salta for his part in irregular sales of State and public lands, ancestral territories and indigenous community lands and the destruction of natural resources of traditional value to local communities contributing to a reduced chance of their survival XVI. Since the emergence of legislation promoting biofuels (proposed and approved by the National Government in November 2006), an intense media campaign has taken place in north-west Argentina by the corporations in alliance with large agricultural producers, provincial governments and the Instituto Nacional de Tecnologia Agropecuaria (INTA, the National Institute for Agricultural Technology) through events and seminars to set up and manage biofuel production, identical to those imposing GM biotechnology. To date, the only concrete action that has taken place is the agreement signed on the 14 th of August 2007 between Walter Wayar, the Vice- Governor of Salta, and INTA for the creation of an experimental biodiesel plant using Jatropha. FUNDESNOA, an NGO created in 2005 with the aim of integrate large companies that have a presence in north west Argentina to the Coporate Social Responsability critera. The Executive Director, Liliana Pontussi, is an environmental expert with strong links to official powers and to the companies. The highest ranking members of FUNDESNOA are: the BANCO MACRO BANSUD based in Salta (this is the central point for financial managers from the soya industry credits, contracts for deforestation, sowing and harvesting machinery, etc.); Ledesma SAAI; DESDE EL SUR S.A.; the sugar mill at San Martin del Tabacal; CRESUD SACIF Y.A. the owners of the largest expanse of land in the region and a centre for agribusiness. This fusion of corporate interests can be seen in the initial interest in the expansion of sugar cane for bioethanol production, although it also has interests in soya and other grains 4. This foundation has opposed the legislation to stop deforestation and has organised events to encourage Congress to oppose it XVII. 4 LEDESMA SAAI intends to buy 51% of the shares for the San Martin del Tabacal sugar mill in Salta and put financial pressure on the La Esperanza sugar mill, who is experiencing financial problems, to expand its sugar cane monoculture. La Esperanza is a rural farmers cooperative producing sugar cane in 10% of its 90,000 hectares. The remainder of the land is used for a variety of food products and forest. LEDESMA SAAI is modernising and expanding its current sugar cane bio-ethanol plant. It is planning to become the largest national producer of this biofuel and its project plans include the deforestation of an additional 50,000 hectares and the construction of a bio-ethanol pipeline. On the 11 th June 2007 they organised a public meeting for the planned deforestation. Proposals included the deforestation of a 5,000 hectare section of the transitional zone, and the further expansion of the sugar cane crop, and to declare its desire to increase bio-ethanol production. This implies the destruction of the last remnant of transition forest connecting the jungles of the foothills and the plain. 143

13 United Soya Republics The above links the soya traders in Salta to the soya biodiesel plants outside the region. Louis Dreyfus, one of the major grain companies in the region, with installations in the Department of San Martin (an area where Desde el Sur S.A. has a strong presence); REPSOL YPF also has the largest working oil wells in Salta, as well as storage tanks in Gral. Masconi, which display banners stating ecodiesel. Along with REPSOL YPF, Louis Dreyfus has installed a soya biodiesel plant with a tons capacity, and is planning another plant at Timbues, Santa Fe, with a tons capacity. This grain company exports soya derivates and seeds mainly to Europe, and oil to India and China. There is talk within the business world that Rosario de la Frontera and Las Lajitas, are locations with the required infrastructure (owned by BUNGE) and are being considered for the installation of the next biodiesel plants. The green washing of the Government and some NGOs The most flagrant case of the sale of State of public lands was that of Gral Pizarro Nature Reserve. This hectare Reserve was composed of plains of Chaco forest to the east, and transitional mountain jungle in the foothills to the west. In 1995, it was declared a protected area in perpetuity and protected through legislation. Rural farmers had lived there for over 80 years, and the Wichi indigenous community had settled there after fleeing from deforestation in their original homelands (Tartagal, Department of San Martin). This area acted as an ecotone, a transitional corridor optimising the connection between the Yungas and the Chaco and protecting their high biodiversity. There is an extensive list of species recorded in the area, including anteaters, tapirs, red eagles, rheas, jaguars, crowned eagles and red-fronted macaws. In April 2004, the Salta government annulled the legislation protecting the Reserve (establishing a serious precedent which threatens national parks and reserves) and then proceeded to sell off the land in June of the same year. Plots sold were a minimum of hectares per buyer. The lands were acquired by businessmen from Tucuman and Santa Fe and were destined for the cultivation of soya. With this action, the government failed to acknowledge the 20 year old rights that had been granted to families inhabiting this area in farms and smallholdings of 10 to 300 hectares and used for livestock farming and agriculture. Carlos Ordonez, one of small farmers of the area who made a living from livestock farming and bee-keeping, was one of the first to resist the abuse and eviction threats. He alerted Greenpeace, who initiated an intense media campaign denouncing the next planned deforestation. Along 144

14 The soya route in North West Argentina with the Fundacion Vida Silvestre (WWF Argentina), and the Fundacion Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN, the Environmental and Natural Resources Foundation), Greenpeace started legal proceedings against the Salta Government for the environmental protection of the whole population of the Pizarro Natural Reserve. The National University of Salta (UNSA) also started legal proceedings in support of the legal rights of the inhabitants of the Reserve. This resulted in death threats, physical attacks and deforestation orders, but the Wichi community and the other inhabitants resisted the combined attacks from the Provincial Government and the companies. There was an outcry of public opinion as news of the abuses began to spread through all communication channels. Following a massive press campaign, which included appearances from actors and other celebrities talking about the deforestation in Salta, in October 2005 the National Government of President Kirchner intervened, and through the Administracion de Parques Nacionales (APN, the Ministry for National Parks), it was decided to protect an area as a Multiple Use National Park in collaboration with the inhabitants, and to provide land titles for the Wichi community. This reduced the land claimed by businesses from to hectares. The new proposal defined an reserve of 800 hectares for the Wichi. The new proposals include a relocation programme for the small farmers, this program shows clear disadvantages and it is difficult to establish who should be assigned a particular plot. The majority of people in this situation were given less land than they originally had. The small farmers have been lied to and have been made to sign agreements to being settled in new plots, with the risk that if they dont pay for the land within the following years, they run the risk of eviction. There are also promises of loans for the relocations, for the setting up of infrastructure and of land titles, but in April 2007 none of these promises had yet materialised. In mid-2007 the handing over of plots had still not been completed and there was much confusion about their location and the definition of boundaries. Two local producers, Mr Ordonez and Mr Tiburcio are the only two inhabitants who continue to seek court judgements against the Province. The remainder of their neighbours have signed agreements that remove their right to reclaim their land. Many of the inhabitants are not even making use of their new plots because they have other jobes or that they now unemployed and are receiving state aid. Many can not relocate as during the previous years and with the whole debate, invertainity and threats, they have lost their livestock and have no stock to farm XVIII. 145

15 United Soya Republics Finally, having been promised the recovery of part of the Reserve, and because of pressure from the Salta Government, Greenpeace and Vida Silvestre stopped the legal proceedings that were taking place at a national level. The process for planning the restoration of the Nature Reserve is taking place behind closed doors. UNSA disagreed with the plans presented by the Fundacion Pro Yungas (a subsidiary of the Fundacion Vida Silvestre WWF- Argentina) in a report detailing management plans for the reserve, which was presented to the APN. These plans were made without any participative contact with the Reserve inhabitants, with only two fleeting visits made to the area. Comments from Alejandro Brown (Director of the Fundacion Pro Yungas) show his real feelings on the issue: the sale by the Salta Government was legitimate why do they want to preserve the forest if it is degraded? His comments do not even take account the ability of the Chaco vegetation for regeneration (it is widely known to have one of the best abilities for regeneration of any habitat in the world), nor do they acknowledge that the forest resources provide a living for the rural farmers and indigenous communities. There is a real opportunity to optimise their use and to restore their natural cycles. The new plans leave the village surrounded by monocultures. An additional buffer zone, consisting of a forest belt 500 1,000 metres wide, has been proposed. This forest strip is meant as protection for the communities from the downpours that descend from the mountains each summer, and to absorb the drift from toxic crop sprays. This buffer zone has not been respected and this solution has left the populations exposed to soya from all directions. The design of the buffer zone proposed by Pro Yungas and APN is extremely vague and full of contradictions. Although proposed as a buffer zone, it includes an area of hectares for the cultivation of citrus and soya. These monocultures will be interspersed with 80 metre wide strips of natural vegetation acting as screens every 700 metres. These strips are classified as ideal green corridors. Because the report mentions problems with water and wind erosion, with the possibility of rain gullies, landslides and torrential water, it proposes that the companies should construct drainage systems XIX. In December 2006, the deforestation began again, on supposed protected areas. To date, hectares of forest have been destroyed, even though there have been protests from the APN and some of the local inhabitants. The deforestation is opening up areas metres wide and is bordered by screens of vegetation made up of metre-wide forest remnants. Greenpeace did not stand by its commitment to observe the development of the environmental impact assessments, and they restricted access to 146

16 The soya route in North West Argentina the planning process for the communities that campaigned with them for almost two years. According to the modified agreements for the reserve, this area was part of the buffer zone. The local population do not believe that citrus fruits will be planted, as the deforestation has been identical to that which prepared the way for soya. No works have taken place to control the drainage of summer rains. With the deforestation, relocated families will find themselves right next to the monocultures and they will be exposed to agrochemical sprays. The new park is shaped like a bottleneck, with the narrowest part near the entrance to the Chaco. This significantly diminishes its ecological potential as a connection across these two areas. The latest expansion of the neighbouring estate of La Moraleja means the community has become completely surrounded by large areas of deforestation, and there have already been cases of poisoning from agrochemical sprays coming from La Moraleja. Also, in the summer of 2006/07 the river burst its banks and cut another course. La Moraleja has not left any kind of flood plain. Neighbours say that during the last deforestation La Moraleja cut down hectares when they only had a permit to cut In the shortterm, the large group of local producers still settled on the mountain slopes to the west of town, will be at serious risk due to the deforestation taking place on both sides of their lands. They will end up sandwiched between two areas of monocultures. These local farms consist of a corridor of small plantations that supply the markets of Buenos Aires, particularly during the winter months. There are also concerns regarding access to water. A group of about 40 producers share the same drain. If this should be blocked or re-directed further upstream, then nobody would be able to provide any produce. There has already been an incident during the cycle of 2006/07 where some producers have had problems when water was diverted from crops in La Moraleja to an area 2 kilometres away. The market gardens lost a significant amount of produce and were never compensated for their losses. The UNSA maintains the juridical case at the national justice, stressing the environmental risks this situation signifies for the communities and the damage to small, non-gm agricultural enterprises in Pizarro. These will not survive the toxic impact of soya cultivation. The inhabitants of Pizarro have no information about how the proceedings are progressing with the New Reserve. According to the town officials, the National Government has paid 3 times the price of the land, but it is still not clear if all the land has been transferred. Despite everything, the conservation NGOs continue to celebrate their victory over this environmental campaign. This case has 147

17 United Soya Republics been promoted in Argentina as the most exemplary in responsible soya cultivation led by Greenpeace, Pro Yungas and the WWF. The Responsible Soy proposes land use planning estimating soy expansion and leaving islands of hotsots of biodiversity and primary forest. During 2007, through environmental impact studies requested by LEDESMA SAAI, Pro Yungas determined, the viability of cutting down hectares of the forest corridor that make up the last zone connecting the jungles of the foothills in Yuto-Sauzalito Jujuy 5. In Pizarro, the opportunities for local grass-roots organisations to take part in decision making relating to the land use planning have been deliberately obstructed by Greenpeace Argentina and the Pro Yungas Foundation. They omitted any mention of the continuous abuse, and of the abusive attitude that was evident towards human rights and the environment by the promoters of the soya and sugar cane industries. Greenpeace Argentina is also promoting the idea of responsible soya production in Salta. This idea has been derived from international talks on the Round Table of Sustainable/ Responsible Soya. The regional objective of the meetings between Greenpeace and PROGRANO, is the creation of an association for large soya producers in Salta. To label as responsible a desire to accelerate and establish the predominance of business monopolies, is a complete illusion. It is the eco-green corporate greenwashing to cover their true operations and profits that take place at the expense of human beings and ecosystems. Environmental and social impacts: violent evictions, assassinations and contamination The impacts of such a violent process of destruction as that experienced in the Province of Salta are many and they encompass many different areas. From an environmental viewpoint, beyond the accelerated extinction of flora and fauna, the process of deforestation and fragmentation 5 The Agency for National Parks distributed notices in May 2006, which refuted the study of the Pro Yungas Foundation and declared the zone as an area of special interest. In June 2007, the Asociacion de Trabajadores del Estado (ATE-CTA, the Association of Public Servants ( FUNCIONARIOS PUBLICOS) initiated an appeal to give the area legal protection in an attempt to counter the irregularities of the public hearing, and because the local indigenous guarani communities living close to the area had been affected by the deforestation and their ancestral cemetery in El Talar had been destroyed. They had also had livestock killed and had their ancestral paths closed by LEDESMA SAAI. Due to the public enquiry and the constant complaints during the last three years from neighbours, human rights organisations such as CAPOMA, which denounced illegal operations taking place without consulting local communities, the hearing was suspended. 148

18 The soya route in North West Argentina has put at risk the diverse ecosystems of the region. The massive floods that took place from January to April 2006 are a phenomenon that demonstrates the consequences of massive deforestation. This disaster was caused by the lack of forest cover and the disappearance of the riparian forests which regulated peak river flows coming down from the mountains, and which reduced the impact of droughts by filtering water from underground aquifers. During this particular summer, the North of Salta became cut off when a bridge collapsed on Route 34 (the main communication link with the rest of the country and Bolivia) due to the rising waters, also destroying poorly-built homes in the town of Tartagal. Agricultural land became unusable as it was covered with sand washed down from the hills and this affected a large part of the region. According to Pablo Canziani, a researcher from CONICET, who is also the Director of the Catholic University in Argentina (UCA) Programme for the Study of Atmospheric Processes in Global Change: There has been a brutal increase in deforestation in northern Salta, Paraguay and Bolivia. Deforestation causes the bare soil to warm up in the sunlight and this generates an increase in violent storms. What is taking place in the river basin of the Tartagal River and neighbouring areas could affect the water cycle. On a regional scale, climate change is also caused by change of land use. A report by the UNSA departments in Tartagal during the floods of the summer of 2006 determined: The irrational management of national resources by the provincial state the small producers are ruined, the indigenous communities have been devastated, and access to land has been violated XX. The eco-epidemiologist Daniel Salomon, who is the Director of the Institutes CENDIE, ANLIS Malbran from the Ministry for Health and Environment comments that the deforestation has had a profound impact on the health of the population. Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease caused by a parasitic protozoa transmitted by the mosquito vector. During an interview with Salomon he explained that uncontrolled deforestation generates outbreaks of cutaneous and mucocutaneous Leishmaniasis. If this disease is left untreated, or if it is treated incorrectly, there is a possibility that over several years it will develop intoa serious form of mucocutaneous disease producing facial lesions, and ultimately death XXI. When deforestation takes place and remnants of forest remain as screens, many of the wild animals, which are reservoirs of parasites and mosquitoes, concentrate in these. This creates conditions where human beings come into contact with them on a regular basis, a situation that was infrequent before deforestation. Zoonotic diseases are beginning 149

19 United Soya Republics to be more common in people who live near to crops. At the end of 2005 there were cases, and these continue to rise. A person s nutritional status also influences disease and the population is becoming increasingly nutritionally deficient. Another disease is the hanta virus which is transmitted through rodent urine. Rodents accumulate in the remaining belts of forest. There are also ratadas (outbreaks of rodents) within directly sown crops. When machinery comes into these areas the rodents leave in masse and invade the homes of those who live nearby. People have to abandon their homes to the invading rats who destroy all their goods and food. These ratadas pose an enormous risk to human health. They are the cause of many diseases of unknown consequences, such as the fevers associated with Rikettsia. This disease is associated with ticks, which in turn are associated with rodents. It can have fatal outcomes, and cases have been recorded in Jujuy XXII. The final issue within the environmental impacts is the permanent spraying of toxic chemicals (such as glyphosate, endosulphan and atrazine) on the soya plantations. Spraying is carried out by planes and land-based vehicles. Statistics collected by the San Bernardo Hospital in Salta Capital, which is the largest hospital in Salta and the medical centre for cases from all over the Province, has observed a 300% rise in the last decade in carcinogenic disease, with the majority of patients coming from Salta Departments where soya is grown. A symbolic case is that of a girl who died of poisoning in November 2006 in the Department of Rosario de la Frontera. The symptoms of poisoning began during the days that aerial crop spraying was taking place. She lived 50 metres from a soya plantation. The case was played down by the official press, headed by El Tribuno. There was no serious autopsy performed and there was a permanent boycott on the case by political powers. They also put pressure on the medical staff to conceal data. Grain silos are usually erected in, or close to, towns and there is a constant transit of trucks and vehicles used for crop spraying, which are often washed within the town boundaries. The grain is transported and loaded at the silos with the consequent drift of toxic particles. In Piquete Cabado, a town near Las Lajitas, where BUNGE owns enormous silos surrounded by extensive areas of soya crops, there is an alarming proportion of infant deformities, and children with leukaemia, cancer and other diseases, which were unknown in the area before. In Mollinedo, another BUNGE base, the situation is the same. The silo here is located 20 metres from the town s school, which is surrounded by soya monocultures. The crop spraying trucks are washed in the middle of the town and in order to reach the 150

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